Thursday, November 18, 2010

New FAQ for the 40K Rulebook!! My army just got better!

by Spaguatyrine

This came out yesterday and there are some changes that affect my army and yours!
It was pretty neat to see some updates and an explanation of changes GW makes at the beginning of the 40K Rulebook FAQ.

Check out the link above for the changes.

Some quick things I like:

Transport vehicles that move flat out just got more juicy! Units inside are destroyed if they are wrecked the same turn they moved flat out.

IC's now get slingshotted even more into combat as friendly models now move out of the way for the IC to get base to base.

Tank shocking no longer can make a unit run off the entire board in 1 turn as each tank shock is a morale test and therefore if the unit passes does not run again.

The Skimmers Moving Fast change isn't really material; it ceases to apply as soon as the player turn ends (remember, turn is only game turn if it says "game turn", p9 brb), so it's actually not really a change at all, other than to affect exploding off a ram or tank shock (dog).

Some other random silly - Sgt. Telion gives everybody in his unit Stealth, so there's a 3 pt/model savings whenever you use him with your scouts...Skimmers that ram enemy vehicles in terrain don't have to roll a dangerous terrain test unless they begin or end their move in the terrain, so successful rams allow some sort of funky 'pull up!' maneuver apparently...

I'm just happy about being vindicated about original assaulters. I've always held steadfast that you can't turn around and hit a new assaulter, if you were locked in combat until NEXT turn. They clarified that. I am happy.

"I'm just happy about being vindicated about original assaulters. I've always held steadfast that you can't turn around and hit a new assaulter, if you were locked in combat until NEXT turn. They clarified that. I am happy."

People who have this opinion have always been DRASTICALLY misreading the "at the beginning of combat" sentence in the Assault rules. It's not even remotely what it means--it's about clarifying which models are engaged with which other models. People only come to this "you can't attack new assaulters" conclusion if they've already misinterpreted the point of the rule.

The clarification they added, to end the argument forever, actually goes AGAINST what you're saying. It's kindof insane that we're still having this ridiculous conversation even after they clarified it.

The original problem:

The rulebook uses the phrase "at the beginning of combat, before any model attacks" as the time period when you determine which models can attack which other models.

For whatever reason, plenty of people wanted to read this as "at the beginning of the ASSAULT PHASE" instead of "at the beginning of the combat," which are obviously not the same thing. If you read it as "at the beginning of the Assault Phase" then obviously new Assaults have not yet been made, and therefore new Assaulters would not be eligible to be attacked. But that's not what it says, and they clarified the timing issue:

Q: For multiple combats there are two extra rules under the heading ‘Attacking’. For these rules, at what point is “at the beginning of the combat”? (p41)A: It is after defenders react when you pick the combat but before any attacks have been rolled.

"the beginning of the combat" is after Defenders Reacts move, i.e., right before any model attacks--which is exactly what it has always said. At that point, all new Assaulters are in base contact, and you determine who will be eligible to attack what.

For reference, the point of the rule is that deaths at higher Initiative values CANNOT change your eligible targets. You determine eligible targets for the entire combat before any attacks are rolled, and any deaths that happen will not change those eligible targets. People misunderstanding this situation is what has always led to the "YOU CAN'T ATTACK MY NEW MODELS!" interpretation, and now thankfully it's gone forever.

"The Skimmers Moving Fast change isn't really material; it ceases to apply as soon as the player turn ends (remember, turn is only game turn if it says "game turn", p9 brb), so it's actually not really a change at all, other than to affect exploding off a ram or tank shock (dog). "

It's mostly for Skimmers moving Flat Out into terrain and Immobilizing themselves--therefore Wrecking themselves--on their own turn. It's still rare, but it's more likely than a Ram/TS death.

It certainly doesn't carry over into your opponents' turn (despite Aaron's best wishes), as the Flat Out/Transport rules clearly restrict the timeframe of "no disembark" to the current Movement phase. Shooting a Skimmer that moved Flat Out on the prior turn won't kill the dudes inside.

If you want to see a pointless FAQ entry, it's this one:

Q: What happens when a vehicle tank shocks a unit that is already falling back? (p68)A: The tank shock will be resolved in the usual manor.Note that passing the Moral check for a tank shock will not cause the unit to regroup it will just prevent them from fleeing again.

This one is entirely irrelevant. They tell you to "resolve the Tank Shock in the usual manor" (hooray typos!), then tell you what happens if the unit passes. Unfortunately, the unit cannot pass the Morale check--when Falling Back, you automatically fail all Morale checks, so if you get Tank Shocked you'll always automatically Fall Back again.

It seems they just got overzealous when writing the "one vehicle can't TS you multiple times" clarification (which was an important and necessary one) and just started rambling about Tank Shock in the FAQ.

Aside from that, the vast majority of these FAQ updates were clarifications to end stupid arguments when people do something "unexpected" with the rules and other people whine about it. The only one that's really "new" is the ICs moving to combat one--which straight up changes the rules in that regard--but brings things way closer to the idea of the rule (ICs attempting to make combat no matter what, as herioc individuals) rather than the mechanics of the rule. It was still surprising to see them entirely change the rules for it, though.